Love Taupō are fortunate and delighted to have the services of award-winning golf photographer and visual storyteller, Ricky Robonson, showcasing golf across the district.
The media landscape has changed and it is continually evolving at a fast speed. A slow shift away from traditional media, the rise and dominance of new media, and now the emergence of Ai. But one thing has remained steadfast and pure - beautiful, striking and timeless photography. Yes the techniques and equipment have moved with the times, but behind the lens there’s still a human eye, and the best talent still delivers the best results.
Following a recent assignment in Taupō where Ricky captured Tūrangi Golf Course in a stunning twilight shoot, we managed to catch up with the Queensland native. In a wide ranging discussion, we picked Ricky’s brains about what makes great golf photography, what makes Taupō such a good subject, ‘what’s in the bag?’, and other shutter secrets.
Hi Ricky, so what's your elevator pitch?
[RICKY ROBINSON]
Okay, well, I'm a golf course photographer, but also a photographer of other things. But golf is my main passion at the moment and I've been in golf for a third of my life now in all different aspects, greenkeeping and now found photography as my main joy and connection to golf.
I've been super lucky to work with some amazing clubs and yeah, I feel pretty fortunate that I've been able to work for so many great clubs in New Zealand and get out there on these courses, and have them to myself a lot of the time is pretty cool.
And yeah, I think New Zealand is one of those places where there's not a thousand photographers out there capturing it. It's one of those niches that I've found myself in and I'm just giving it everything and just trying to get better. Every shoot and every job I go to.
Must have been a pretty tall building for that elevator [jokes]. Just as well you're a firefighter, you have to take the stairs. In all seriousness, though, you're a volunteer firefighter by trade. Tell me about that journey from fireman to renowned professional golf photographer, and how firefighting fits into your life.
[RICKY ROBINSON]
Yeah, it's cool. I've been firefighting for three years now, it's awesome. It has its ups and downs, obviously. It's like sometimes you go to things that aren't great, but it’s really the team, I think that's one thing I love the most about it.
As a golf course photographer, I'm just out on a golf course surrounded by a lot of land, and then I'm surrounded by all the guys and girls at the fire station and yeah, it's just great to be around people. It’s good fitness too, but mostly it's like a little work environment that I don't have working for myself. Mangawhai is a really small community, so we've basically got three world class golf courses next to a town of 5000 people. And everyone that works at the golf course lives in this one town. So it's quite cool to help out and be involved in that way. So, yeah, it's cool.
You're originally from Brisbane, but what compelled you to leave sunny Queensland to come to the shores of New Zealand?
[RICKY ROBINSON]
Tara Iti. I started greenkeeping in Australia for four years, I did my apprenticeship at Royal Canberra Golf Club. I then took up a job as an assistant superintendent at Pine Brook Country Club in Calgary, Canada. Some guys in my team asked, have you seen this Tara Iti place? I had not. I literally saw a picture and then emailed their team the same day hitting them up for a job. In short, my wife and I packed up and left and started life in Mangawhai, working at Tara Iti.
My wife worked in the clubhouse. I was already a photographer for a long time, but I'd never connected it with golf. And along the way I began taking photos of golf courses. It doesn't take much, I feel, to get good at taking nice photos when you're at Tara Iti. So yeah, I've been living in Mangawhai five ever since.
Let’s dive into the photography stuff. Have you got a favorite golf shot of your own?
[RICKY ROBINSON]
Yeah. I think it's out of two at Tara Iti. One is a shot of hole 15, and the other is a shot of hole six. It's funny, sometimes you end up with a photo that just almost feels like it gets given to you. Like you don't do anything different than any other morning and you end up with one or two photos from a particular day that are amazing. And then you're trying to recreate that for months and months.
Let’s hear your ‘what’s in the bag’? [photography edition]
[RICKY ROBINSON]
Normally I'll have two cameras. I have a dual harness, so I'll have a camera on each hip: Sony A, then I'll have a 100 to 400 mil lens, and on the other camera usually a 35 mil lens, something a bit wider. And then around my neck I'll have a controller for my Mavic 3 Pro drone. And then in the car I'll have a bunch of backup stuff. I've got a backup drone and backup camera just in case anything happens, or a crash.
That's the main set up and it kind of covers everything. You can get the wide shots and I think a big thing with golf course photography, and probably more just my style, I guess, is the longer lenses really pull everything in tight, so you get a lot of compression of the background. You know, if you ever shoot anything from your phone, you'll know that everything looks way wider and further away than it does to your eye. And so using a big lens, you can kind of bring everything back to almost more natural. It just brings everything into the photo a bit better, which I just enjoy.
That's a great insight. So what then makes great golf photography?
[RICKY ROBINSON]
Being able to capture everything so that it's not lost in a photo. There's so many rules of photography, like the rule of thirds for example.
But with golf photography, and also being a greenkeeper and playing golf, I've spent so many hours mowing fairways and stuff so I believe golf courses are built with playing the game in mind.
I try to find what the architect was leading you to, or trying to see it from their perspective, because the people that are going to probably enjoy the golf photos are golfers. I don't really believe in any rules in photography. I think whatever, it's art. If you like it, you like it. If people enjoy it, it's great photography.
Do you believe you have a defined style, or do you have a style you’re trying to capture?
[RICKY ROBINSON]
My style has a lot of leading lines. I like to kind of draw the eye through the photo from using leading lines, whether it's like the edge of a fairway, kind of following the edge of the fairway further into the photo, or with the drone, trying to find patterns and different angles.
Using the fairway, obviously, it's naturally going to lead you to the green, but trying to find the most interesting way to kind of frame up things. And I think when you're out there photographing, you just move around and you'll just know when you see it. I probably should go out with more of a plan, but I usually just go out and it always comes to me. You always get out there and you'll just find the angles. You kind of just get better at having an eye for it, you just end up finding it.
So what makes the Taupō region specifically a great place to shoot golf?
[RICKY ROBINSON]
Yeah, I've visited Taupō a few times now to shoot golf. Every time I return I always tell everyone ‘I'm moving to Taupō’, it's such a cool place. With the combination of Wairakei (Wairakei Golf + Sanctuary, Kinloch (The Kinloch Golf Club Course) and Tūrangi (Tūrangi Golf Club), you could just go around those three and play three different styles of course, over and over again and never get bored.
Like New Zealand country track, crazy inland links-style course, and then a beautiful parklands course. You don't really need much else. You have epic golf in every direction. But Taupō or itself probably has, I would say, the most dense amount of quality golf in a notable town in NZ.
And as far as golf goes, it's like you've got some of the golf courses that people love the most in New Zealand. Like, a lot of people's favorites are in.
That’s what we like to hear. We #LoveTaupō and it’s good to know there’s a lot of love from your network for Taupō.
[RICKY ROBINSON]
Of course. You know, there’s classic favorites around New Zealand, but when I mention or share something about Kinloch (The Kinloch Golf Club) I'll get a lot of messages privately saying ‘Kinloch's my number one’, or ‘Kinloch's my absolute fave’.
It’s like a closet favorite for a lot of people, it's their number one, but they're afraid to put it out there. But I know their secrets.
Let’s hear it then, what's your favorite place to shoot in the Taupō region?
[RICKY ROBINSON]
It's a tough one as there are a number of quality options, but Kinloch (The Kinloch Golf Club) in the evening when the sun's setting - the golden hour there is unreal. Pretty much everywhere you look. There's no bad angle. If you're out there at sunset - particularly on the back nine, you're not going to be upset.
Do you have any moments that stand out?
[RICKY ROBINSON]
I was pretty blown away at the scenes at the back nine at Kinloch (The Kinloch Golf Club) in the evening time. But also Wairakei (Wairakei Golf + Sanctuary) in the mornings, before the first tee time when the deer are running around the fairways and with the fog off the little lakes and ponds they've got there.
It's pretty insane that there's so much wildlife just roaming around because they know the golfers haven't started yet. There's so many different experiences just from my kind of perspective as a photographer shooting early and late across the Taupō region.
How do you describe your experience shooting at Tūrangi Golf Course?
[RICKY ROBINSON]
Tūrangi (Tūrangi Golf Club) is one of those hidden gems, it sits at the base of this really cool mountain range and every hole is kind of tree lined and shaped in an interesting way.
It’s got a bunch of big, sweeping par fours falling away off that mountain from elevated tees that provided many good shots. When the evening light comes through, everything kind of just comes to life. It’s probably one of the best little country tracks I've shot.
It would seem that something more than the golf course itself at Tūrangi Golf Club had a lasting impact on you?
[RICKY ROBINSON]
Tūrangi (Tūrangi Golf Club) was the big highlight from my last trip. It’s classic New Zealand golf, ideal for people that just want to just have a place to get together and play good golf. It's a great community asset, it’s what everyone wants in their local golf club. It's super nostalgic.
You're at the clubhouse and everyone's kind of dropped their trundlers off and you just know that it's used as a golf club. It's like a proper golf course. It's used for what it's meant to be used for. There's a lot of golf courses that end up being a restaurant with an okay golf course attached to it that might not get as much use. But Tūrangi is like a golf course for everyday golfers and I love it.
Last question, do you have any big life goals that you're chasing with your career pursuit?
[RICKY ROBINSON]
My main goal right now is just to really get to every corner of New Zealand and just show everything from the top clubs to the little hidden gems, little honesty box clubs. There's such a mixture and they all work so well together and just keep getting better. I mean, I've only been doing golf course photography for about three years now.
So I still have a lot of golf courses to get to. And I want to get overseas and shoot more courses overseas and shoot more big golf events and stuff like that. I've just been enjoying what has come from it so far. And I basically just focus on my own work and getting better and what comes from that, comes from that. So I feel like I'm only just getting started and it's only going to get better from here.
